Til You Fall
by edwardcullenissosexy
Summary: AU: Charlie is an alcoholic, and Bella basically has to care for her little brother, Jack by herself. What happens when Edward steps in to help? Full summary inside. Better than it sounds.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Ok, I always have a long author's note and sometimes two. I will try and put the important stuff at the bottom so you can skip the first part if you want, but I'm not sure how well that will work. I appreciate reviews and comments so I can make my writing better, but I think everybody does. So... some things I would like everyone to know. **_

_**Smile, or the orange pickle will eat you. (see 'Bella and the Jumbo Pickle')**_

_**Taylor Swift loves Twilight and you so stay beautiful.**_

_**And spread Twilightness by signing w4bd&le. or j but whatever... **_

_**it means waiting for Breaking Dawn and loving Edward. I GUESS you could put Jake, or Jasper, Emmett, Alice, Carlisle, etc. **_

_**Oh yeah, and I am team Edward all the way. Jake deserves somebody, but not Bella. And my friend likes Jake just because he's single and "if they were real and I loved Edward, I would be splitting up a relationship that is perfect" or something like that. **_

_**And I know this was REALLY long and they aren't usually THIS long. **_

_**Oh and you should read stuff by Skystripe and Soccerdog12. You will be hearing about them a lot. Also about all of my friends. I also leave them messages through out the story, but you'll get used to it. Also, I'm crazy. Literaly. I think. But, I randomly start writing song lyrics in the middle of chapters sometimes... **_

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Twilight is not mine, if it was, I would be spending time writing Edward into my life, not here, typing this fictional situation. So... **_

_**Still w4bd≤**_

_**K aka edwardcullenissosexy**_

_**Summarry: Charlie is an alcoholic, and Bella basically has to take care of her little brother, Jack, by herself, when they are there. Renee lives in Forks as well, and the two alternate between the two houses, despite the conditions at Charlie. Bella is sixteen, but still goes to her dad's because she refuses to leave Jack alone there, and he is not old enough to say he doesn't want to be there. And the court for some reason believes that Renee and Charlie should still share custody. Renee and Charlie were married until Bella was nine, and Jack was five. How is Edward involved in all of this, and since he doesn't attend high school, how did he come to find out about Bella's situation? And if it was pity that brought him there, when the problem lessens, what is keeping him there? Is it love?**_

After I hung up my towel and got ready for bed, I set my alarm. It woke me up an hour earlier than needed, but I had to get my little brother Jack up for school. Sure, my dad could do that, usually. I didn't trust him to, so I woke Jack up every morning, then I went back to sleep.

It was amazing, I didn't trust Chalie to get Jack up, but I trusted that he would stay awake long enough after Jack got on the bus to wake me up again.

I turned on the radio and crawled onto the mattress on the floor. We were supposed to be moving to a smaller house soon so my brother and I slept on mattresses in his old room. I had gotten used to falling asleep with sound, so I had to have the radio on. I also had trouble just _going_ to sleep. I couldn't just close my eyes, I had to think about something, and nothing else. If I let my thoughts roam, I would never get to sleep no matter how tired I was. I had this fake scene and I would see how far into it I could get, which usually wasn't very far.

Eventually, I fell asleep. I woke up to my cell phone alarm ringing. I hit snooze and yelled at Jack to get up. I turned it off and went back to sleep, no scene needed. Charlie woke me up later.

That afternoon, I got off the bus and set my school stuff down. I got out my book, cellphine, and iPod, even though I knew I probably wouldn't get to read much. I didn't have any homework, so I had until it got dark, or we ate dinner, depending on which came first. I walked outside and sat down on the swing set beside our house.

I loved reading, it was my favorite thing to do. It was much better than watching TV, which was the other option of stuff to do at Charlies. I was borrowing some books from my friends, so I needed to finish them as quick as possible. My dad didn't seem to like my current favorite book, which he would stop me from talking about when he actually remembered what book it was that he did't like. Actually, after about 7:30, he didn't like _any _book I read, which is why I had until I read outside. Because the minute I went back inside, I would be forced to do something random, or look at something random, so that I couldn't read. Or forced to go to bed early. Or forced to talk with him on the front porch while he smoked, another bad habit of his. He just has issues like that.

But that's not his biggest problem. His biggest problem is his choice of liquid. I somehow doubt that glasses and glasses of Vodka everynight is very heathy. Neither is drinking until you wobble in the doorway or don't remember whole conversations in the morning. But, that's what he did. And he wouldn't admit he had a problem. He was always "right". That's just how Charlie's mind was.

This was why he and my mom, Renee, got divorced. Jack and I went over there half of the time. She of course knew about her problem, but there was nothing she could do about it, and we continued to have to go to Charlie's. The good thing about my dad not paying much attention to us is that we could do our own thing. We were responsible, so we didn't get in trouble, but we could just _be_. Lots of times we fixed our own food and took care of ourselved. Well, I guess that isn't a good thing, and when your drunken father is a paranoid freak, its not much fun. Technically, I was old enough to make the decision not to have to go to his house, but Jack wasn't and I refused to leave him there alone.

Later that night, after cooking hot dogs for dinner and watching TV until 10:30, I closed my eyes and attempted to concentrate on my scene. For some reason, I fell asleep quicker than usual. I felt as if I was being watched. Charlie could have been looking in the window from the porch, but I usually felt annoyed if he was looking at me, and the light was off outside. I felt safe, not annoyed. Whatever was watching me was there to protect.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: Sorry about the confusion with the last chapter, I posted it when I was tired and sort of kinda clicked on the wrong document. Oops. Sorry again. It was stupid, and I should have checked it before I posted. You'll forgive me, right? Anyway, the real chapter is up now. **_

_**So... here it is. LOL. There's something behind this story, but will y'all ever guess? Probably not. Well, Jill did and I told Steph. She thought this chapter was hilarious. At first. **_

_**Disclaimer: sobs I-i don't own-n Twi-light. They all -- belong to ... Stephenie Meyer. **_

_**spectacular character named Edward, unfortunately owned by S. Meyer, walks over with a pained look on his face "Don't cry. It's okay. Stephenie is great, she won't hurt us. At least I don't think she will. She has about as much of a chance of hurting me as you do. Does that help any? Come on, please smile." flashes dazzling grin towards crying fan girl crying fan girl smiles then passes out, and is easily caught by Edward "There, that's better. I don't want any of my precious fans crying. That just wouldn't be good. You're supposed to be cheering for me at all of my movie takes, remember? Then, I'll marry you. Did you forget that?" fangirl stares in horror as the beautiful, perfect face of the Twilight character transforms into the semi-similar face in human form with a jerkish, almost Jacob Black (post werewolf) like look of a stuck up actor named Robert recognizable as 'Cedric' from the fourth Harry Potter movie. fangirl rolls eyes "I don't own anything Twilight, and that includes movie characters not used in this story, thanks for pointing it out!"**_

_**Oh, I also don't own City of Ashes by Casandra Clare which is quoted in here. But I do love Jace. (not as much as Edward tho...)**_

"Hey, Bells." Charlie woke me up. Earlier, I had gotten Jack up and then went back to sleep. I was exhausted.

"I know two of us-- three of us-- that over slept a lot," he joked. It wasn't funny.

I sat straight up. There were tears streaming down my face.

"NO! I have _finals_ today!" I screamed.

I got ready as quick as possible, glad that I had set my clothes out the night before.

How could he do this? And Jack? I had gotten him up. He was supposed to get up! Not go back to sleep!

I yelled at him that he was supposed to have gotten up earlier. I shouldn't have, but I was angry. At both of them.

"Jackson Hayes, how could you do this!" I was still crying. We didn't have time to eat breakfast, not that we usually ate breakfast at his house anyway, and we hurried to the car, after I had grabbed Jack and I's lunch out of the fridge. Not only did I not eat school lunch ever, thanks to a meal worm in the corn sometime last year, but Jack and I had learned to _never_ eat school lunch on the last week of school. The chance of knowing what you were eating were much less when _they_ didn't even know what they were serving you. Of course, Charlie could have gone faster. But he got ready faster than usually, probably because of the look on my face.

I had a _group _project for my final in Spanish, my first class. The class that was almost over RIGHT NOW. Angela had texted me earlier asking where I was, and that had made me cry harder. Because of me (well, my stupid father), four people, including myself, were going to fail.

I should have known that Charlie would do this, I scolded myself. He wouldn't shut up last night. He kept talking and talking about stuff he I already knew, but he didn't know I knew because he was drunk, wasted, smashed the last time he told me. I bet he still thinks I don't know. I doubt he even knows what on earth he said last night.

We made it to school, I had five minutes left of my first class. But the teacher was willing to work with us. She reassured me of everything when I got there. Aparantly my partners were more worried about _me_ than their grades.

"You have some great friends, you know?" I nodded to answer the teachers retorical question. Angela was really concerned about me, but she of course knew what was going on the moment I got to class.

"You were at your dad's weren't you?" She asked as we walked out of class.

"Yep! And you want to know something else? Jack is missing his award ceremony!"

We made it to our next class. We weren't doing much in there after we all finished our exams, so I read and talked with Angela, who was in all but one of my classes. She really was a great friend. Of course I knew that, but I noticed this again today.

The deal with our Spanish teacher was that we would have to miss part of our fourth period class to present the project. I felt bad because while Angela and I were missing ice cream in math, our other two partners were missing band. They had asked the band teacher if they could, but I still wasn't sure if they would get in trouble for missing the first part of class.

While reading, I came accross the perfect line. '... but he'd long ago given up trying to fathom why his father did anything.' It was perfect for me. But, I couldn't picture my dad relating to the character in the book, but the quote did fit Charlie, so well.

I was glad tha I was at Renee's house today, but I has no clue what Jack was doing. Renee and his teacher were looking for him earlier and had called Charlie while we were on our way to school. He had ignored the phone at first, but he eventually answered and I could hear Renee yelling across the car.

That was probably the only good thing about being late. Charlie probably wouldn't have gone to Jack's ceremony if he had ridden the bus. He was forced to stay now. Well, he _could _leave, but he would look even worse if he did. He hadn't watched my award ceremony. I flashed back to my state gymnastics meet. And yes, a girl that can't walk a straight line on a level surface can do flips on a four inch wide beam. I had quit gym recently when the gym moved and Charlie wouldn't take me. And, I wasn't as interested any more. But anyways, the gymnastic meets are usually far away, so Charlie wouldn't come. But the state meet had been in the gym at Forks High School. He hadn't seen any of my meets this season and part of last so I expected him to come to the meet that was minutes away from his house.

But he didn't. I fell off the beam for the first time at a meet in two years thinking about how he was just down the road but he still hadn't shown up. Charlie was a disapointment like that. To me and Jack. Since his drinking had increased, he had been like this. His brain was fried, and he only had enough room in his pickled head to care about one and a half thing. One being vodka and large quantities of vodka at that, and the half being a switch between me and Jack. Some days I would get on his nerves to no end, like when I was reading, and Jack would be his favorite, or the game boy obsessed boy I called my brother would be his greatest annoyance while I was quiet and out of the way, but still paying attention. You never knew with him.

He had gotten better at balancing his half though, which was good. However, his number one still remained number one.

_**A/N: Hope that made sense. Let me know if it didn't. Hope you liked it. Please review. **_

_**Still w4bd≤**_

_**K aka edwardcullenissosexy**_


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